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On Wednesday, an incident
adamantly described by
Commissioner of Prisons
Sterling Stewart as a "distur-
bance" between prison officers
and inmates broke out at the
Remand Yard of the Golden
Grove Prison in Arouca.
"It was not a riot," insisted Mr
Stewart, "It was a confrontation
between prison officers and
inmates and necessary force had
to be used to safeguard both
inmates and officers."
No matter how he tries to
avoid the simple term "riot" and
has even used the rather more
potent word "eruption," this was
an incident that sent 25 prisoners
and five badly beaten officers to
the hospital for treatment. Before
the incident had reached its end
at midday on Wednesday, mem-
bers of the Riot Squad were on
standby at the prison to help
prison officers.
It was also regrettable that
when lawyers intervened in the
matter to represent 25 injured
inmates, it became necessary for
their legal team to request an
emergency sitting of the San Fer-
nando High Court to get access
to the prisoners to photograph
their injuries. It might have made
sense for the leadership of the
prison to authorise the request in
the interests of a full and trans-
parent investigation of the conse-
quences of the disturbance, but
that proved not to be the case.
That left the legal team, led by
former attorney general Anand
Ramlogan, to appeal to the courts
for this simple courtesy. And a
full investigation is what the
confrontation demands. Inmates
have accused prison officers of
drenching them with water dur-
ing the night and of destroying
religious texts.
The conflict between guards
and inmates began on Tuesday
night during a routine search of
cells for contraband items. Scuf-
fles during that exercise resulted
in a dozen prisoners being taken
to the hospital. At dawn, hostili-
ties broke out again when officers
came to serve breakfast and were
attacked by inmates with impro-
vised weapons. The pitched bat-
tle sent 13 more inmates to hos-
pital along with five officers.
The 25 inmates who are behind
the legal action are Muslim, a
significant fact that did not
escape Mr Ramlogan. Clearly
such accusations call for investi-
gation, but generally, conditions
at the Remand Yard have been an
issue for decades now.
In March 2013, before the
nine-member committee led by
Prof Ramesh Deosaran completed
its report on conditions at the
prisons, former Anglican Bishop
of T&T retired Reverend Clive
Abdulah reminded T&T about
the then 33-year-old findings of
the commission of enquiry into
the nation s penal institutions.
The 1980 Ryan Report called
for a complete revamp of the
Remand Yard, the shutdown of
the Carrera Island Prison and
other reforms. By the time Prof
Deosaran submitted his report on
the prisons system to Prime
Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar
in November 2013, very little had
changed beyond that committee s
finding that the prisons system
had collapsed and was running
on autopilot.
The overcrowding at Golden
Grove Prison has long been a
source of contention and con-
cern, with 1,100 inmates in the
Remand Yard alone, far in excess
of its capacity. It s clearly time to
stop talking about the problems
with the prisons system and to
take action.
The problems have been
explained in multiple reports over
at least four decades, and a solu-
tion is desperately overdue.
Prison riot another warning
The 1980 Ryan Report called for a complete revamp of the Remand Yard, the
shutdown of the Carrera Island Prison and other reforms. By the time Professor
Deosaran submitted his report on the prisons system to Prime Minister Kamla Per-
sad-Bissessar in November 2013, very little had changed beyond that committee's
finding that the prisons system had collapsed and was running on autopilot.
NEW YORK---Over a ton of
confiscated ivory tumbled off a
conveyor belt into a rock crusher in
Times Square in a symbolic display
highlighting an illegal trade that
activists say threatens the survival of
African elephants.
The Wildlife Conservation Society
says the global ivory trade is
responsible for the slaughter of as
many as 35,000 elephants a year in
Africa.
"Crushing ivory in Times Square---
literally at the crossroads of the world---
says in the clearest of terms that the US
is serious about closing its illegal ivory
markets and stopping the demand," said
John Calvelli, the society's executive vice
president for public affairs.
US and state government officials,
conservationists, animal-welfare
advocates and tourists gathered to
watch as hundreds of ivory trinkets were
turned into a powder that fed into a
trough, waiting to be trucked away.
The event on Friday was organised
by the US Fish and Wildlife Service,
New York state agencies and the
Wildlife Conservation Society, which
runs New York City's zoos.
Actress Kristen Davis, a longtime
advocate for elephants known for her
role in the HBO show Sex and the City,
said at the event no one should ever
buy ivory even if a dealer says it's an
antique. "We are going to lose
elephants in ten years if we don't do
something, which means that our
children will never know that elephants
roamed the planet in the wild as they
should," Davis said.
The crush was one of several ivory
destruction events that have been held
around the world to stigmatise the
ivory trade.
The Times Square ivory will be
combined with the six tons that was
crushed in Denver in 2013 and used to
create a memorial to elephants.
(AP)
Sound Off: Activists in symbolic 'crush' of ivory trade
A20
MONDAY,
JUNE 22,
2015
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